So Close

[Surgünoglu]

I don't think I'm terrible at the game, but I seem to be stuck in novice mode. It's getting frustrated. I can almost keep above water, almost win wars against neighborhood bullies, and almost maintain a decent economy. I come pretty darn close, but success always seems out of reach.

Am I missing something? Is there just a learning curve with which I need to be patient? Is there some trick that lets the medium power contend with the large? I can hold off a lot of my neighbors for a few years, but inevitably they wear me down and, once a smaller opportunist DOWs me, I'm in a spiral toward collapse. Worse still, sometimes I'm doing fine and I become a mere vassal when my clan's heir is not my own.

Something always seems to go wrong. Is this the type of game where you take your lumps, restart, and hope for better luck? It sure seems like it at present.

 

[unmerged(197434)]

How are you starting? Are you at peace or war, a daimyo of a big clan, a clan leader of a big or small clan, are you in the middle of the big island, or at an end? Do you have mountains and sea borders to limit points of attack. Are you gobbling up small neighbors right away? Are you actively building up your revenues? Do you manage too many provinces?

It's so situational it is really hard to pin it on one thing. My most recent game I was a Daimyo of Yamana and had relatively secure flanks -- Mountains and Sea on two sides with one enemy clan to my east. I built up a small retinue and used to to grab two quick provinces, and was given another by my clan leader. I had six and i gave three away to vassals so they'd love me, my honor jumped and i could focus on building up my provinces (always go for level three of castle and village in each province and then specialize, IMO). I built up my revenue and when war was declared on someone new I hired a ronin army and bumped up my retinue. I was in the red but I snagged two new provinces and petitioned (and got) another Daimyo title.

Soon, I was nominated to be the heir, and when clan leader died I had a healthy Yamana to rule. I think made white peace and disbanded the levies, letting the country build for a while. I was making good money by then, and so I focused on Takeda which had grown pretty big on the southern island and to my east. I made friends with a local Takeda daimyo and sowed dissent with the intent of inviting him into my clan. I sent ninjas to repeatedly dishonor his liege.

He didn't join, but he did emancipate himself and started the Takeda vs. Sata-Takeda Civil War. I waited until Takeda had exhausted their major armies fighting the rebellion, then declared war on Takeda and took all of his holdings on the southern island. It was pretty cool outcome of using my Master of Guard and Ninjas. Now I'm pretty buff, but I'm not the strongest guy around by any means.

If you're having trouble pick a clan with some good holdings, minimal or no enemy clans, and a strong strategic position. Don't be in a rush to fight, build your economy and use other means to weaken a neighbor. If you aren't clan leader, just build a retinue quietly and look for small provinces you can seize in war. Having your back to mountains or oceans really helps if you want to turtle and build for a little while.

 

[Surgünoglu]

I started out as Ashina, which was an arbitrary start. Somehow I staved off Uesugi, took a chunk of the east coast, built up Date as a choke point between me and the north, but Osaki gobbled up Nanbu and pretty much has no threat to its north.

Maybe I should try out a larger power, or start farther up to the north. I did pretty well, but sometimes bigger powers collect around you. ::shrug::

I love this game so much. It keeps me on the edge of my seat, right up until I realize I'm doomed.

 

[unmerged(197434)]

Yeah, I'm starting with the edges and I usually don't start as the Clan leader, I like the option to form my own if my clan is clearly losing an early war or joining another clan.

It's also becoming my favorite game. I couldn't get into EU3 but this game just consumes me for hours, and really makes me want to order Crusader Kings II.

 

[Hamann]

Always remember that even if an enemy seems to big for you to take down, it's usually not the case. Check the clan leader honor and his relationships with his vassals, try to break them from the inside if you can't plot with their neighbours.

About war, try to only raise enough levies to safely defeat your rivals, to save money, which can later be spent on ninjas, ronins, guilds and bigger armies. This is a good practice as you can leave your border provinces better defended in case the enemy tries to siege them, and you can quickly raise more levies as reinforcements should the fight go bad. But it is not easy judging how well your forces will perform in equal conditions.

 

[autumnTwilight]

There is a learning curve for this game, but there are a few things you can do to help yourself from getting eaten early on.

The AI has a very good nose for opportunity and weakness and will jump at you if it thinks it can get something out of it. A lot of wars between evenly matched powers often give rise to opportunist lab grabs. To get around this, make declaring war on you too costly for them. The theoretically best way is to exchange a hostage with a neighbor. The AI does not seem very keen on accepting these offers but offers them often enough to make use of them. Next, bribe your neighbors, the bribe increases your relations with them and makes it cost more for them to declare war on you. Marry your neighbors daughters or marry your daughters to your neighbor. This will give a relations bonus like a bribe but is permanent.

Next, the time at which you declare war is important as well. If everyone in the neighborhood is at peace and has 20-30 honor, then things will spill over into opportunism and engulf the entire region a few years after the first declaration. It has been my experience that the first two clans at war get picked clean in most of the time. You should either make sure that all your neighbors are low on honor or that the area is already engulfed in war. The AI does not like to open up 2 front wars, and it is even worse at fighting them. If you notice that one of the larger neighbors (Uesugi at the start) has begun to implode and is at war with half of Japan, then it is probably a good time to also declare on them and grab some territory.

Last, pick a clan that maybe is a little less difficult to play than whichever clan you were currently playing. The difficulty display on the map is misleading as map position is very important. In general, Nanbu and Shimazu have very strong starting positions and have decent starting size. Also, picking a clan that borders Yamana or Uesugi could be very dangerous early on if they decide they are hungry.

About the becoming a vassal issue, did you nominate your heir for the clan leadership?

 

[InanimateJ]

Worse still, sometimes I'm doing fine and I become a mere vassal when my clan's heir is not my own.

Aside from the other great feedback in the thread already, make sure you're popping out kids as soon as humanly possible, especially male ones. I tend to always have 3-4 wives on my main character, and his heir to ensure longevity in the line. You can't nominate your heir as clan leader if he's not your son, I've noticed, so this puts emphasis on making sure you have enough wives to bear you at least one son. For some reason my wives like daughters... I've had generations with 8 daughters and one son.

 

[autumnTwilight]

About the wives thing, if you find all 4 of your living wives are over age 40 and you do not have as many heirs as you would like, send them to a monastery and replace them with new 16 year old wives, preferably with fertility boosting traits. It is a small price to pay all things considered.

 

[Widukind_86]

There are some excellent tips in here. Most of the time, you will want to wait 'till someone else in your neighbourhood starts a war, and then when you see the opportunity, declare war on the losing side and grab as much land as possible. Prevent getting backstabbed by maintaining high relationships with threatening powers and try to exchange hostages with them. If you're small, build up your retinue to it's max size and hire a couple of ronin as well if you can afford it. The AI isn't too smart in war and you should make use of that to it's max extent. Try to grab a forward province of theirs which has a favourable battleground for defending (forests, mountains) with your retinue, and let them waste their armies trying to dislodge you there. Make sure your highest ranked commander is in command. A lot of the time, the armies they send aren't much larger than your own and with a bit of luck you can make them suffer disastrous amounts of casualties, thereby quickly draining their manpower. The AI seems to spread itself too thin a lot of the time, so take out their their armies one by one by attacking them with overwhelming numbers.

It also helps giving out your Daimyo titles to your vassals, since it lets them build up a bigger retinue of their own.